Background: The major growth of mobile technologies in the recent years has led to the development of medical-monitoring applications, particularly on smartphones. Aim: The aim of this study was to review the use of m-health in the monitoring of patients with chronic pathologies in order to consider what could be adapted for palliative care patients at home. Design: A systematic review of the English and French literature was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses criteria. Date Sources: The review screened the following databases: PUBMED, SCOPUS, COCHRANE, SCIENCE DIRECT, SUDOC, and EM-Premium, screening studies published between 2008 and 2018. The selection of articles was done by the main investigator. All studies concerning the use of m-Health apps for patients with chronic diseases were included. Results: From the 337 selected publications, 8 systematic reviews and 14 original studies were included. The main uses of m-Health apps were biological and clinical monitoring (particularly concerning the symptoms) in 75% of the applications, disease self-management in 64% of the applications, and therapeutic patient education in 50% of the applications, with remote monitoring. Conclusions: The development of an m-Health application could become a complementary monitoring tool during palliative care. However, it seems important to question the impact of technique in the professional–patient relationship and avoid the pitfalls of standardizing palliative care and reducing the patient to a “sick” health technician. A future step would then be to define which health-care professional would be in charge of this “m-monitoring.”

Background Despite increasing use of telemedicine in the field of palliative care, studies about the best circumstances and processes where it could replace face-to-face interaction are lacking. This study aimed to: (1) identify situations that are most amenable to the use of telemedicine for the provision of palliative care to patients in nursing homes; and (2) understand how telemedicine could best be integrated into the routine practice of mobile palliative care teams. Methods A qualitative study based on semi-structured focus groups (n = 7) with professionals (n = 33) working in mobile palliative care teams in France. Results Between June and July 2019, 7 mobile palliative care teams participated in one focus group each. Using thematic analysis, we found that telemedicine use in palliative care is about navigating between usual and new practices. Several influencing factors also emerged, which influence the use of telemedicine for palliative care, depending on the situation. Finally, we built a use-case model of palliative care to help mobile palliative care teams identify circumstances where telemedicine could be useful, or not. Conclusions The potential utility of telemedicine for delivering palliative care in nursing homes largely depends on the motive for calling on the mobile palliative care team. Requests regarding symptoms may be particularly amenable to telemedicine, whereas psycho-social distress may not. Further studies are warranted to assess the impact of influencing factors on real-life palliative care practices. Telemedicine could nonetheless be a useful addition to the mobile palliative care teams’ armamentarium.

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